The Revelation of Jesus Christ - Part 1 — T. Austin-Sparks

The Resurrection Titles of Jesus Christ

We are today occupied with the resurrection side of the cross. This afternoon I'm going to ask you to consider with me some of the titles of the risen Lord. The resurrection title of the Lord Jesus in the book of Revelation chapter 1 verse 4 unto the seven churches which are in Asia.

Praise to you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come. And from the seven spirits which are before his throne. And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

There you have three titles of the Lord in resurrection. That they relate to him in resurrection is quite clear from the context where he himself says to John I am the living one I became dead I am alive forevermore.

Three titles the faithful witness the first of the dead ruler the kings of the earth. Now it is important to note two things as we advance to this. Firstly this is the book of the revelation or the unveiling of Jesus Christ.

So the first sentence declares. Secondly it is the revelation of him as exercising authority and judgment. Firstly in the church secondly in the nations and thirdly in the kingdom of Satan. Those three things comprehend the whole of this book.

Christ's Authority Founded on Incarnation, Triumph, and Vindication

This authority which he is here revealed as exercising is itself based upon three things. First what he has proved himself to be in person in incarnation. Secondly what he has become in triumph over death.

And thirdly what he is in exaltation and divine vindication. At a glance you will see that those three things are but an exposition of the three titles. What he has proved himself to be in person in incarnation the faithful witness.

Taking him right up to the cross and into all the experience of the cross. What he has become in triumph over death of the dead. What he is in exaltation by divine vindication the ruler of the kings of the earth.

All his authority and judgment is based upon those three things or upon what he has proved himself to be in person. We take these as far as time will allow one by one. Witness incarnation that is in his person while here on the earth.

Jesus Christ as the Faithful Witness in His Humanity

Now a witness is the embodiment of the truth. If he is a true witness if he has the right to be called a witness he himself should be the very embodiment of the truth. Jesus was that. Jesus as the faithful witness was a, we may say, the faithful representation of God's mind concerning man.

What God intended man to be. What the whole race of men had failed to be. Jesus became that. A faithful representation of God's mind in the creation of man. That is how we must look at him while here on the earth.

Not just following his steps, noting his words and his actions, being interested or even fascinated with his teachings and with his mighty works, but looking deeper, deeper into his heart, into his mind, his whole mentality, his whole spirit.

Looking deeper to see what kind of a man this is. Comes out from the very nature of this man. All the reactions that he makes to all the play of condition and trial and suffering and disappointment. All that he meets in this world and all that he meets in men.

All that he meets in his life circumstances and how he behaves and what spirit he shows. What comes out from the inward man. What kind of a man is this? I think we can sum up the life of the Lord Jesus here in three ways.

Christ's Perfect Love for the Father, His Own, and the World

Perfect love. Perfect love. Perfect love to God his Father. That is not only seen in the things that he says about it and as to it, but it is seen in his relationship to the Father all the way through.

A perfect love. And Matthew, if he had been other than he was, he might have had some questions about the Father. Why his lot should have been what it was. Why this and why that from infancy to the cross.

Why he was called upon to do this, to endure this. Why he was so tried with the very men whom he said the Father had given him. He said, those whom thou hast given me. No, he might have looked at those men as you had been other than Christ himself.

This is what he has given me. This is what he has given me. What I have got to put up with. These are what he has given me. You see what I mean. But at no point, at no time, under no circumstances, suffering, adversity, trial, provocation, disappointment, you find a cloud coming over his love for the Father.

And what shall we say about his love for them? It needs to be a perfect love, doesn't it? But here is the declaration. Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end. To the end.

That's the love that never fails, that never gives up, that never disappears. It might have broken down many times. Here is perfect love. And what about the world? What about the world? I mean the world of sinful, weak, evil, persecuting mankind, the world.

I'm not speaking about the world system which he positively hated and which he hated, but the world of man. That world that God so loved. What he gave himself for that world. And in its worst representative, its worst representative, who were exercising their power for his utter destruction, to slaughter him.

No, not too strong a word. It would have led the sheep to the slaughter. To slaughter the Son of God. He said, Father, forgive them. Perfect love. Here's a man that God intended men to be. And here's the man to the likeness of whom God will work to have all men in his kingdom.

Christ's Perfect Faith in Dependence on God

Perfect love. The faithful witness. Perfect faith. Perfect faith. It's quite clear that his life from its very beginning right on through to the end was placed deliberately by God upon a basis of faith.

In all material and temporal matters, his was a life of faith. But far, far more deeply and testingly than in the temporal, in the spiritual realm, his was a life of faith. You've only got to sit down and think for a little while on how far your faith would carry you under the conditions of his life.

You will discover, I'm quite sure, that you won't go very far with him. Your faith won't stand up to very much what came upon him. If we understood all that was going on in this necessity for faith, one who had, through a past eternity, never had to live by faith at all, never had to live by faith, he'd had all that heaven can give, its riches, its honor, its glory, its servants to wait upon him to fulfill his behest of the Word, never had to live by faith.

It was all tight, it was all possession, and now emptied of all that. You know, it's one thing if you've never had anything else. It's not so difficult if you've never had anything else to go without.

But if you've had it all and suddenly find yourself in a position where you just cannot, cannot do what you did before, you haven't got it to do with, you may not in any case do it. You're morally bound not to do it.

You have accepted a life and a course and a ministry which forbid you to draw upon those other resources and compels you to live wholly out from another, out from God in all things. It's a big changeover.

Christ's Perfect Obedience Unto the Cross

And this is faith. This is faith. His faith was a perfect faith. And that is how God meant man to be. It is just at that point that the first man broke down. He did not implicitly trust God. Perfect love and perfect faith and perfect obedience.

Perfect obedience. We need not dwell upon it. We know how at all times and in all things, having committed himself to the will of his Father, he fought right through on that, not my will, thy will, thy will, thy will, to the end.

And through all, and what an all it was. And Paul is right when he said he became obedient, even unto death. Yay. The death of the cross. Perfect in these three things. And that is how he was a faithful witness to God's thought concerning man.

He was a perfect representation of God's mind. In that way, he was a faithful witness. Then he was a faithful witness to the truth. The word that was very often on his mouth, on his lips, the truth, truth, truth.

Christ's Faithful Witness to the Truth

Faithful and true witness, he is called in another place, in this book of the Revelation. Faithful witness to the truth. There was faithfulness about his witness. His witness as to the truth of man. He covered up nothing.

He made no pretence that man is better than he is. He was faithful in his witness as to what man is. We might be afraid to do that, or we might think it not polity. We certainly would know that it would be unpopular to speak the truth about man.

But Jesus was faithful in this. And the uncovering and the exposure of the truth about man. He was faithful to the truth about God. He was faithful in his witness to the truth about sin. Sin. And he was faithful in his witness to the truth about Satan.

He does not hedge this matter. He does not hesitate to uncover the devil. He exposes him. Drags him right out into the light. Tells you exactly what he is. He's a liar from the beginning. He's a murderer.

Faithful witness to the truth. Why? Because he was the truth. His nature was the truth. And there we must pay to more of our time. It is a tremendously important thing in relation to the power of resurrection.

Truth as the Basis of Christ's Authority and Judgment

To authority. To government. To what is here revealed as to Christ in resurrection. It is a basic, a fundamental thing that there shall be the truth. A true witness. You see, his authority, his judgment, his government, his everything.

His right, his right to call the churches into question. His right to judge the nations. His right to deal with the kingdom of Satan is based upon this thing, this one thing. That he is the truth. He is true.

He is true. There can be no comeback from church or world or Satan which would find some point in him that was a flaw, that was not true. That would upset his whole authority, his right to judge. It is all resting upon the fact that he is true.

Dear friends, you will at once pass in mind from him to ourselves, to the church, his weakness, failure to register the lack of authority, the absence of authority and always the terrible state of weakness that the world can point at the church, point a finger, and that the church has not the influence and power with the world and that Satan can stand and hold the ground and almost laugh at the church is very largely due to the fact that the truth is not here.

It's not true. It is just not true. Many of the things that you say may be true in themselves, but they are not true in you. Many of the things that you profess while in themselves they may be correct, they are not true of you.

There's a gap between what you profess and say and claim and yourself. It's just not real in your own case. Therefore, your whole position is given away. You see what I'm getting at? This is a very important matter for witness, for influence, for effectiveness, for standing before God and standing before man, before the world, standing before Satan.

God's Holiness, Truth, and Judgment Against Lies

What a large place God has given to this matter of truth. He is Himself the God of truth. He is shown in His word to be very jealous over the truth. He is said to desire truth in the inward path. He holds all lies, we are told, in abomination.

He has confined all liars to the lake of fire, so the word says. He excludes from the city, the New Jerusalem, everything that makes it a lie. It has no place within. Jesus Himself is called the truth.

He's called Himself the truth. And here He is the faithful and true witness, while on the other side, Satan, at the other extreme, in the other realm altogether, is called the liar and the father of lies.

The whole structure of creation collapsed when the lie, the falsehood, entered in. At that time, all that beautiful structure just went to pieces. It was all because of a lie. A lie came in. And if there is a lie in anything, that's what's going to happen to it sooner or later.

It is going to mean the collapse, the disintegration of any structure, if there's a lie in it. The result of that lie entering at the beginning was that man himself became a lie. Man became a falsehood.

It's not just that there was untruth in him. He himself became a falsehood. He is a deceived creature. There's a lie in his very nature. He is not the true thing that God made him and intended him to be.

He is a misrepresentation of God's thought about man. There's a lie not only in his nature and constitution, but there's a lie in his life and in his work. He hopes and he believes. He works and he strives.

And it is all in vain. It is all in vain. The wise man said that he had explored every realm of knowledge and learning. He had thought out every secret law. He had made it his business to go into every realm to discover its secrets and to make himself acquainted and familiar with all things.

With all things. And he said, when I'd done it, and you know he did get quite a lot, Queen of the South came to see his wisdom and the wisdom of Father Solomon is proverbial. Please turn the tape over now and continue listening at this point on track two.

Do not fast-wind the recorder in either direction.